Roy Lewallen wrote:
I haven't read the article, but are different mobile antennas being
compared on different vehicles, or the same vehicle? It's amazing how
many people don't realize that the vehicle is fully half the antenna,
and may in many cases play a more important role in determining overall
radiating efficiency than the supposed "antenna". So it's impossible to
draw any conclusions about mobile antennas based on comparisons done
when they're mounted on different vehicles. It's as much a test of the
vehicle's effectiveness as a radiator as it is the antenna's.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

OK Roy you lost me.

I'll confess that I'm one of those new no code guys that concentrated on
the answer pool for three months in order to get an Extra Class license.
What I'm trying to do now is relearn enough electronics to become a
competent communicator for EMCOM purposes. You see back when I was last
in radio your transmitter would keep you warm and provide enough light
to read the manual by. Now it is thirty years since my Novice license
expired and not only are the newer radios all solid state they do most
of their signal processing digitally. By my point of view that only
makes me as yet not fully trained rather than the devils personal
representative in amateur radio.

Are you being serious when you say that much of the difference in the
mobile rigs performance may be the vehicle on which it and therefore
it's antenna are mounted? IS the body of my half ton cargo van doing a
substantial amount of the job of radiating my signal? If I mounted the
same antenna with the same mount on my Saturn should I see a difference
on a field strength meter that is the same distance to the centimeter
from the antenna over the same parking lot with the antenna over exactly
the same spot?
--
Tom Horne, W3TDH